Drowning remains a significant cause of accidental deaths, especially among children. Many children are non-swimmers and die as a result of falling into swimming pools; however, many children and adults who are swimmers die either from panic, exhaustion, cramps, seizures or a combination thereof. Children may drown despite being supervised while swimming. The parents or other adults supervising the child may have “just looked away for a second” only to find the child drowned on the bottom of the pool.
Several attempts have been made to address water safety with various degrees of success. One approach taken to prevent drowning is to place an alarm on the pool itself. Exemplary pool alarms are Poolguard® Models PGRM-2 and PGRM-SB available from PBM Industries, Inc. (North Vernon, Ind.). With such pool alarms, an audible alert sounds when a sensor detects entrance into the pool (e.g., due to movement of the water). Pool alarms may be useful if the pool is empty, but are not suited for use with a child who is allowed to play in the pool. Furthermore, the alarm is deactivated when swimming is allowed, and there is a risk that the user may forget or neglect to reactivate the alarm after the swimming session.
Monitoring systems that use wearable alarm devices can provide significant enhancements over pool alarms. For example, wearable swim monitors and drowning detection systems may track the swimmer in the water and identify possible drowning events. However, these systems may be limited in the sense that the swimmer or supervisor must proactively attach the wearable alarm device to the swimmer's body; if the device is not attached, the swimmer will not be protected.